A far-right French historian who killed himself inside Notre Dame Cathedral is being hailed by leading extremists as a hero and martyr, protesting against the ‘‘decadence’’ of a society legalising gay marriage, mass immigration and ‘‘Islamisation’’.

In a clear sign of the return of extreme radical discourse inside the populist National Front, the party’s leader, Marine Le Pen, tweeted in solidarity with Dominique Venner soon after his suicide was reported.

The 78-year-old ‘‘father of the modern French extreme right’’ shot himself dead in front of the cathedral altar in the view of hundreds of tourists, forcing Notre Dame staff to close the church for several hours and prompting a swift visit from French Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

‘‘All our respect to Dominique Venner whose last, eminently political, gesture would have been taken to try to wake up the people of France,’’ Ms Le Pen said on her Twitter account.

Twenty minutes later, after an outcry about her glorification of suicide as a political act, Ms Le Pen added ‘‘it is in life and hope that France will renew itself and save itself’’.

The former deputy leader of the National Front, European MP Bruno Gollnisch, told BFMTV that Mr Venner’s act was a ‘‘demonstration against the decadence of our society’’ by an ‘‘extremely brilliant intellectual".

Testimony of despair

“It is a testimony of despair . . . he was certainly a man of honour who found the current situation very difficult."

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Mr Venner spent years in jail for being a member of a terrorist group Organisation de l’Armée Secrète, which plotted to assassinate Charles de Gaulle on multiple occasions during the 1960s over the French withdrawal from Algeria. Mr Venner also wrote a series of essays and books considered to be foundation texts for the extreme right.

His choice of Notre Dame for his dramatic end was seen as strange given his adherence to the still influential “pagan" anti-Christian wing of the French extreme right.

He formulated a modern ‘‘revolutionary nationalism’’ that propelled extremists beyond World War II and decolonisation, and towards a Europe-wide struggle against ‘‘non-white races’’. By committing suicide and explaining it as a sacrifice, he deliberately placed himself in the tradition of pro-Vichy collaborationists such as Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, the fascist writer who committed suicide rather than endure France’s liberation from the Nazis.

Suicide note on alter

Mr Venner carefully orchestrated the media flurry after his suicide by leaving a sealed letter on the altar at Notre Dame and another letter with friends at the far right-friendly Radio Courtoisie. The letter was read out on air soon after his death.

‘‘I feel the duty to act while I still have the force,’’ Mr Venner wrote.

“I believe it is necessary to sacrifice myself in order to break with the lethargy that is dragging us down.

‘‘I chose a highly symbolic place . . . that I respect and admire. My act incarnates an ethic of will. I bring death on myself to awaken drowsing consciences.

“While I defend the identity of all peoples in their own countries, I rise up against the crime targeting the replacement of our populations.’’

Final blog post

Mr Venner also wrote a final blog post in which he explicitly linked the fight against gay marriage to ‘‘the reality of Afro-Maghrébin (North African) immigration’’, Islamist domination and sharia. ‘‘Their combat cannot be limited to the rejection of gay marriage,’’ he wrote.

Notre Dame is one of the world’s most visited monuments, with more than 13 million visitors annually. It has become the focal point of violent protests against gay marriage.

Earlier this year, members of the topless Ukrainian radical feminist movement FEMEN burst into the cathedral during mass to celebrate Benedict XVI’s resignation as pope and the passing of a gay marriage bill in the French parliament.

Mr Venner’s made-for-the-media act inside the cradle of French Catholicism has put the mainstream church under pressure because some extremists associated with the often breakaway Catholic fringe are celebrating the suicide as the noble act of a martyr.